House of John

John Stewart was the second son of Walter Stewart, Sr., founder of the Walter Stewart Family, and his first wife, Mary Ross. He was born June 2, 1787.

Family tradition says that John was born at sea while the family was on the way from County Antrim, Ireland to America. On his application for American citizenship on file at the Laurens County Courthouse in Laurens, SC, John stated on April 17, 1810 that he was born in Ireland and had resided in the state of South Carolina for 21 years. (If he was born on a ship under Irish registry, however, international law considered him a native of Ireland.)

John grew up at his parents' homeplace about a mile behind the present site of Bethany Presbyterian Church in lower Laurens County. In 1815, at age 28, he married 19-year-old Adeline Pitts (Linny), the daughter of Elizabeth Anderson and Henry Pitts, Jr., who lived near the Bethany community. Family tradition says that John made some of the furniture that the young couple used in their first home, including a chest with initial and date (1815), a drop leaf table, and four dining chairs, all of which survived for many years.

John and his wife Linny reared their family of six daughters and five sons in the community of Sandy Springs, about four miles west of Bethany Presbyterian Church. The exact location of their home is not known, but from references in 6 Clark Berry Stewart's journal, it was probably on the road between Sandy Springs Methodist Church and Bethany Presbyterian Church, not far from the later homeplace of 1.11.3 John Wesley Donnan (see Bethany map). John and Linny and their family were members of Bethany Presbyterian Church, where John became one of the first two deacons when an election was first held in 1841. He appears to have served as Justice of the Peace for Scuffletown Township for a time, and came to be known as Squire John. Even his much younger half-brother Clark called him "Squire John" occasionally - or else "Uncle John."

John and his family joined the exodus from Bethany in search of fresh farmland in the 1850s. The entire family moved to new land along the old Indian Boundary Line in upper Laurens County. The first to go were two of his married children, 21 Eliza Ann Stewart and her husband Robert Sherman, and 24 William Washington Stewart and his wife Mary Ann Templeton. The two couples joined New Harmony Presbyterian Church (just inside the Laurens County line southeast of the present town of Fountain Inn) by letter from Bethany Presbyterian Church in March, 1850. In 1851, when he was 63 years old, John packed up the rest of his family and moved to the same area. 6 Clark Berry Stewart briefly records the departure of John's family in his journal:

John Stewart Esq. Moved up to Goshen to day this 18. th of Jany 1851

5 Waggons -

("Goshen" appears to be an old name for the Fountain Inn area - the Biblical "land of plenty.") On January 26, 1851, John and Linny and five of their older children joined New Harmony Presbyterian Church, "the aforesaid seven all of one family be Certificate in one day," notes the church record. The two youngest children, 19-year-old John Warren Stewart and 16-year-old Clark Preston Stewart, joined by examination on October 10, 1853.

Tradition says that John and his family lived in a house on what is now Gulliver Street inside the city limits of Fountain Inn (on the side road leading to Thackston's Garage). At the time, this was probably open farmland about two miles from the old Fountain Inn stagecoach stop. (The historical marker for the old inn is located about a mile and a half from the center of Fountain Inn on North Main Street.)

About a year later, John's younger half-brother Clark made the decision to move to "Goshen." The two went in together and bought a parcel of land (later known as the Mock place) about two miles northeast of Fountain Inn on Big Durbin Creek. Their agreement was that Clark and his family would take 275 acres and the house on the land, and John would take 25 acres and the sawmill down by the creek. Clark and his family moved in December of 1851.

The next summer was long remembered for "the freshet of '52," an unusual flood that overran the many creeks and rivers of Up Country South Carolina. Clark recorded the heavy rains in his journal:

August 25, 1852. Sowed Turnips in Drill 2 1/2 or 3 ft apart...Rain, heavy in Evening -

August 26, 1852. The Rain fell from an early hour of the day - in pervect torrents until after night some time - My fence on the Creek all gone - only 1/2 an acre of Corn in that field - Sand left in abundance...John Stewarts Saw Mill all gone and half the dam left - Broke and all gone - Bridges; Mills Factorys S.C. nearly all gone - Great loss sustained in this Country -

His sawmill destroyed, John set to work rebuilding it with the help of his sons. When the day came to "raise" the new mill, a crowd of relatives and neighbors came to help. Clark records the shattering climax of the day:

October 7th, 1852. Bro. John raised his Saw Mill about 30 hands ass.ting - all went on well tho. slowly until about sundown; when we had just put up the 15th place he fell backwards from his seat; and died instantly - no cause is known why - I think it was congestion of the brain from excitement -

Gods ways are not as our ways - May we have grace sufficiently to enable us to bow with becoming resignation before such wonderful dispensation -

October 8th, 1852. He was buried at New Harmony about 4 P.M. A great many in attendance - feelings great -

Like his younger brother 3 Robert - and their father before them - John died a few months after pulling up stakes and moving on to new territory from old Bethany. His widow Linny died five years later and is also buried at New Harmony Presbyterian Church. Her sons continued to operate their father's sawmill for some years after his death under the direction of the eldest unmarried son, 26 Henry Stewart.

Five of John and Linny's eleven children died without issue. Little Margaret Elizabeth Stewart died as an infant in the Bethany community. 22 Mary Juliana Stewart died in 1846 at age 29 and is buried at Bethany Presbyterian Church. 28 Robert James Stewart was killed in action in the Civil War, in the Seven Days Battle of Richmond. He served as a private in Company D, 27th Regiment, SC Infantry (Hagood's Brigade). His body was brought back and interred at New Harmony Presbyterian Church.

23 Edna Hunter Stewart lived for many years in the Fountain Inn area and in later years joined her youngest brother, 2.11. Clark Preston Stewart, in Russellville, Alabama. She is thought to be buried there.

29 Sarah Adeline Stewart, born in 1832, was one of the first schoolteachers in the Walter Stewart Family. She began by helping her uncle, 6 Rev. Clark Berry Stewart, as a tutor for the younger pupils in the various schools around Fountain Inn - mostly in or near church buildings - in which he taught. In 1871 Sarah was certified by Greenville County as a licensed school teacher, and continued her long career of teaching students in the area in several one-room schools. According to a little diary that she kept for the year 1889 (all that has survived), Sarah, her sister 25 Isabella Stewart Garrett, and their niece 241 Laura Stewart Bradley were three of the charter members of the First Presbyterian Church in Fountain Inn, founded in 1889 by 14 charter members, 13 of whom were from New Harmony Presbyterian Church. Also in this little diary is a record of Sarah's trip in 1889 to visit her brother Preston in Russellville, Alabama (see 2.11. Clark Preston Stewart).

John and Linny's oldest child, 21 Eliza Ann Stewart, married Robert Sherman and removed to Sevier County, Arkansas, where they have numerous descendants. 2.10. John Warren Stewart settled in Johnson County, Texas, leaving descendants now living in Texas and Oklahoma. 26 Henry Stewart settled near Travelers Rest, SC, with many descendants still living in upper Greenville County. 24 William Washington Stewart and 25 Isabella Stewart Garrett settled in the Clear Springs community (then known as Huntersville), with descendants chiefly in Laurens and Greenville counties.


2 John Stewart

21 Eliza Ann Stewart

Eliza Ann Stewart was the eldest child of Linny Pitts and John Stewart, founders of the House of John. She was born in 1815 in Laurens County, SC in or near the Bethany community.

Eliza Ann's uncle, 6 Clark Berry Stewart, was a frequent visitor in the household when she was a young woman (she was only two years younger than Clark). In 1840, while he was going to school in Laurens and preparing to go to seminary, Clark noted in his journal that Eliza Ann and her younger sisters Mary Juliana and Edna made some of the new clothes he needed - a coat, vest, and "pantaloons" - dress pants.

In 1845, Eliza Ann married Robert Sherman of the Bethany community, said to be the son of David Sherman. A few years later they moved to the Fairview community in Greenville County near the present town of Fountain Inn, SC. They joined New Harmony Presbyterian Church near Fountain Inn by certificate from Bethany Presbyterian Church on May 25, 1850. The records of the church also show that their children Sarah Elizabeth, Eliza Jane, and John Madden Sherman were baptized there as infants. An old plat of the cemetery shows two unnamed infant children of Robert Sherman, dates of birth and death not known.

Family tradition says that Robert Sherman was a stonemason who built the chimneys of the old Robert Gilliland house (later owned by Lee Nash) south of Fountain Inn, still standing in 1982 (see Fairview map). According to 6 Clark Stewart's journal, Robert Sherman rented a house and farm from him in 1853. Robert Sherman also helped Clark lay out his cowhouse and (for a charge of $7.25) repaired his carriage.

New Harmony church records show that "Robert Sherman and wife" were "dismissed by certificate" on October 11, 1859, about a year after the birth of their youngest child. New church membership is not given, and not much is known of the family for nearly 30 years after this. Later descendants say the family lived in north Georgia for a time. The oldest family records, dating from about 1907, give Robert Sherman's date of death as 1882 (place of burial not recorded). In 887, Eliza Ann and her surviving adult children settled near Lockesburg, Arkansas (Sevier County) near the Oklahoma border. Eliza Ann later fell and broke her hip, recovered, but died of "dropsy" in 1894 at age 78. She is buried at Green's Chapel Cemetery near Dierks, Arkansas. Eliza Ann, it is said, was Presbyterian, but her descendants were Baptist.

Eliza Ann's youngest child, Edna Catherine Sherman, never married. After her mother's death she is said to have "visited around a few years with relatives in South Carolina, Georgia, Texas and Arkansas." In her last years she made her home with her niece, 2141 Lydia Sherman and husband Lawrence Hill near Lockesburg, Arkansas. She died of pneumonia in 1930 at age 72, and is also buried at Green's Chapel Cemetery.


2 John Stewart

21 Eliza Ann Stewart

213 Eliza Jane Sherman

Eliza Jane Sherman was the daughter of Eliza Ann Stewart and Robert Sherman. She was born in 1854 near Fountain Inn, SC, probably near the old Indian Boundary Line between Upper Laurens and lower Greenville counties.

Not much is known about Eliza Jane and her family. She was a child when her parents left the Fountain Inn area, presumably to settle in north Georgia. She married James Henry Betty in 1877. She and her husband and their young family appear to have moved to Sevier County, Arkansas with Eliza Jane's mother, her brother John Madden Sherman, and her sister Edna Catherine Sherman, probably about 1887.

Eliza Jane and her husband James Henry Beaty had a family of eight children. They are buried at Green's Chapel Cemetery in Sevier County near Dierks, Arkansas, together with several other members of the family.


2 John Stewart

21 Eliza Ann Stewart

214 John Madden Sherman

John Madden Sherman was the only son of Eliza Ann Stewart and Robert Sherman. He was born in 1856 near Fountain Inn, SC near the Old Indian Boundary Line between upper Laurens and lower Greenville counties.

John was baptized on August 9, 1857 at the age of one year at New Harmony Presbyterian Church near Fountain Inn. Two years later his parents withdrew their membership from the church, presumably to settle in Georgia. In 1877 John married Martha (Mattie) Clementine Chaffin, the daughter of Nancy Ann Eliza Young and Tyre Jefferson Chaffin of Georgia. Like John's mother and his sisters, they later settled near Lockesburg, Arkansas in Sevier County. Their granddaughter, 21414 Verna Hill Keating of DeSoto, Texas, remembers the following about the family:

John Madden and Mattie Sherman moved from Georgia to Arkansas, I believe in 1887. They came by train and settled in southwest Arkansas. Their children went to school at Woolsey school. I believe the name of the school was later changed to Lebanon.

They farmed and grew their own living. The community was sparsely settled and covered with forest. There were so many wolves the children had to watch for them walking to and from school.

There was no church near so John helped to establish a Sunday school. His family were Baptists but the only church near that community now is Methodist - Green's Chapel.

Their daughter Lydia married Lawrence Butler Hill in 1899 and was living about four miles south in the Provo community. In later years John and Mattie moved to the Provo community and lived in a small house near their son Paul. Sometime in the 1920s when their health was too bad for them to live alone, they moved into the house with their daughter, Lydia. John died in 1928, and Mattie continued to live with Lydia until her death in 1936. She was buried beside her husband, John, in the Green's Chapel Cemetery where other relatives had been buried before them.


2 John Stewart

24 William Washington Stewart

William Washington Stewart was the fourth child and oldest son of John Stewart and Linny Pitts, founders of the House of John. He was born in 1821 near the Bethany community in lower Laurens County, SC.

William's half-uncle, 6 Clark Berry Stewart, refers to him in his journal with much affection as "my nephew and particular friend, W.W. Stewart." In 1840, when the 27-year-old Clark was attending the Laurensville Male academy in preparation for his theological studies, he took 18-year-old William with him to Georgia to see his mother, Isabel Bobo Stewart. Clark and young William enjoyed hunting together in the Bethany community, and they kept up their friendship after they both moved to the Fountain Inn, SC area in later years.

In 1843, William married Mary Ann Templeton of the Bethany community. She was the daughter of Margaret Hutchinson and Capt. James Templeton of the Bethany community and the Harmony community near Fountain Inn. Mary Ann's grandfather, James Templeton, Sr., was a brother of the John Templeton from whom Walter Stewart, Sr. bought land in 1795 after coming to the Bethany community from Ireland.

Mary Ann and William lived for a time in the Bethany community, where their first two children, Laura and John Thaddeus Stewart, were born. They then moved to the Huntersville (Clear Springs) community north of Fountain Inn just across the Laurens County line in Greenville County. (The remains of their log house can still be seen in 1982.) On May 23, 1850, they became members of New Harmony Presbyterian Church. Their third and fourth children, James Addison and Margaret Stewart, were later baptized as infants at New Harmony.

William Washington Stewart served for some years as postmaster of the Huntersville community, and also had a blacksmith shop on his farm. He was 40 years old when the Civil War started in 1861. On January 15, 1862 he enlisted as a private in Company A, 1st Regiment, SC Infantry (Kershaw's brigade), and legend has it that he was never heard from again. The records of New Harmony Presbyterian Church list him as dead of "chronich Diarah" in Columbus, Mississippi on December 1, 1864. His Confederate military record gives the same date and place, with cause of death as malaria. He is buried at Columbus Cemetery, Columbus, Mississippi.

Mary Ann, William's widow, lived in the Clear Springs community for many years and died in 1891 at age 71. Although a Presbyterian all her life and a member of New Harmony and later Fairview Presbyterian Church, she is buried at Clear Springs Baptist Church near her home.


2 John Stewart

24 William Washington Stewart

241 Laura Mandeville Stewart

Laura Mandeville Stewart was the oldest child of William Washington Stewart and his wife Mary Ann Templeton. She was born in 1845 in the Bethany community in Laurens County, and as a child moved with her family to the Huntersville (Clear Springs) community near Fountain Inn, SC. The family's home was in Greenville County, about a half a mile from the Laurens County line (see New Harmony and Clear Springs map).

In 1866 Laura married John Westmoreland Bradley, a Civil War veteran. He enlisted in Pickens County, SC on February 12, 1861 and served throughout the war in Company K, 3rd Regiment, SC Infantry (Kershaw's Brigade).

Laura and John Bradley settled not far from Laura's home in the Clear Springs community, where John farmed and was also one of the early carpenters of the Fountain Inn area, as were his two sons, Will and "Cap" Bradley, and his son-in-law, Till Howard. John Bradley was elected as one of the seven Subchiefs at the first Stewart Reunion in 1907 and served in this capacity until his death in 1911 at age 77.

John Bradley was a member of the First Baptist Church in Fountain Inn. Laura, a Presbyterian all her life, was a charter member of the First Presbyterian Church in Fountain Inn (founded 1889). Both are buried at the old Fountain Inn Cemetery in Fountain Inn.

Laura and John Westmoreland Bradley reared a family of two sons and a daughter, Effie. The two sons, Will and "Cap," married but had no children. They are described by B.C. Givens in the History of Fountain Inn as two of the carpenters "who built our town."


2 John Stewart

24 William Washington Stewart

242 John Thaddeus Stewart

John Thaddeus Stewart (Thad) was the second child of William Washington Stewart and Mary Ann Templeton. He was born in 1848 in the Bethany community in Laurens County, SC and as a child moved with his family to the Huntersville (Clear Springs) community in lower Greenville County near Fountain Inn, SC.

In 1871 Thad married young Mattie Jane League, the daughter of Mary Lou Stokes and Robert League of the Jonesville community near Simpsonville, SC in Greenville County. They settled on a farm in the Clear Springs community and reared a family of 13 children, 12 of whom survived to adulthood. Thad and Mattie Stewart were active in the group of parents who donated land and funds to set up Huntersville Academy (later Bethany School) in the 1880s, the first school in the Clear Springs area. They attended Clear Springs Baptist Church near their home and are buried there.

Two of Mattie Jane and Thad Stewart's children, 2422 Mary Ann and 2425 Robert R., married a brother and sister, John B. Cook and Sallie Cook, children of their neighbor Abraham Cook and his wife Eliza Glenn.

24221 Nell Cook, Historian for the House of John, adds this note about Mattie Jane and Thad Stewart, her grandparents:

Thad's father went into service in the Civil War and he was left in charge of the family after his father's death. He had little schooling but learned to read and write a beautiful hand. He clerked at William Hunter's store at Huntersville at an early age.

When he married my grandmother her father, Robert League, bought land from Thad's mother, Mary Ann Stewart. They lived in a two-story white house on the land (still standing in 1982) and their family was reared there. Thad was a farmer and a merchant. He taught Sunday school at Clear Springs Baptist Church but never joined the Baptist church.

After his death, my grandmother moved to Simpsonville so that the younger children could go to an accredited school. She died there in 1924.


2 John Stewart

24 William Washington Stewart

243 James Addison Stewart

James Addison Stewart (Jim) was the third child of William Washington Stewart and Mary Ann Templeton. He was born in 1853, probably in the Huntersville (Clear Springs) community in lower Greenville County not far from Fountain Inn, SC. Jim was 11 years old when his father died of disease in Columbus, Mississippi during the Civil War.

In 1874, young Jim married 17-year-old Martha Lucinda Austin (Lou), who may have been the descendant of an old Austin family that settled in lower Greenville County in pre-Revolutionary days. Jim and his bride were married by 6 Rev. Clark Berry Stewart, his great-uncle, who makes brief mention of the marriage in his journal for 1874:

Thurs. 15 Married at Nelson Austins James Stewart to Miss Lou Austin

No compensation Amen

After their marriage, Jim and Lou Stewart settled in Columbus, Mississippi, in Lowndes County near the Alabama line. Why they settled in the same area where Jim's father died is not known. It has been said that 62 Wistar Stewart, the first historian of the Walter Stewart Family, went to Mississippi to visit this family about the time of the first Stewart Reunion in 1907, and himself collected all our existing records on it. At this time Lou and Jim Stewart were living at 1326 Bell Avenue in Columbus, with five living children. Four of their children were married and living nearby, and a fifth - a young daughter - was still at home. Further efforts to contact descendants of the family have not been successful.


2 John Stewart

24 William Washington Stewart

244 Margaret Linnie Stewart

Margaret Linnie Stewart (Maggie) was the fourth and youngest child of William Washington Stewart and Mary Ann Templeton. She was born in 1855, probably in the Huntersville (Clear Springs) community in Greenville County north of Fountain Inn, SC.

As a young woman Maggie married George Hunter Jones, the son of Mary League and William Bluford Jones of the Huntersville community. (Like Maggie's father, George's father was for a time postmaster of Huntersville, with the post office in his home.) They were married November 24, 1874 by Maggie's great-uncle, 6 Rev. Clark Berry Stewart, just a month after he performed the marriage rites for Lou Austin and James Addison Stewart, Maggie's older brother.

Maggie and George Jones settled in the Clear Springs community not far from Maggie's widowed mother, Mary Ann Templeton Stewart. George Jones was a blacksmith and repaired watches. In later years he and Maggie moved to nearby Simpsonville, where they lived on East Georgia Road. George served as mayor of Simpsonville 1915-1917.

Maggie and George Jones are buried at Clear Springs Baptist Church in the community where they were reared.


2 John Stewart

25 Isabella Katherine Stewart

Isabella Katherine Stewart (Belle) was the fifth child of John Stewart and Linny Pitts, founders of the House of John. She was born in 1824 near the Bethany community in lower Laurens County, SC.

Belle was a young woman of 27 when her parents packed up their large households and joined the migration out of the Bethany community, moving to new land along the Laurens-Greenville county line not far from the stagecoach stop called the Fountain Inn. Belle joined New Harmony Presbyterian Church on the same day as her parents and several of her brothers and sisters - June 21, 1851. About a year later, her father John died suddenly at his new sawmill on North Durbin Creek. His widow Linny was left with seven unmarried children: three daughters - Adeline, Belle, and Edna - ranging in age from 20 to 33, 26-year-old Henry, 22-year old Robert, and teenagers John Warren and Preston. Five years later, in 1857, Linny herself died, with all seven children still unmarried and all still living with or near their mother. (Two other married children also lived nearby with their young families.)

Belle was the first of the remaining seven brothers and sisters to marry. In 1860 she married John Garrett, the son of Stephen Garrett and his wife Polly (maiden name unknown) of Laurens County. John Garrett's father was a grandson of Ann Ousley and Edward Garrett of the Warrior's Creek section of Laurens County, the ancestors of most of the Garretts who married into the Walter Stewart Family.

John Garrett was a widower about Belle's age. His first wife, Phoebe Motes, died and left him with four young daughters: twins Pricilla and Aquilla, Fannie, and Nettie. John and Belle soon added two more children of their own: William Perry and Phoebe Malinda Garrett. When little Phoebe was less than a year old, John was killed in action in the Civil War in Virginia during the Siege of Petersburg, while serving in Company E, 3rd Regiment, SC Infantry (Kershaw's Brigade).

All told, Belle lost two brothers and a husband in the Civil War. It is not certain how she and her fatherless children managed to live in the hard years after the war, but all six children - her four stepdaughters and her own two children -survived and grew up to have families of their own. Their descendants still remember stories of the hardships Belle and her children endured. They lived on a farm between the Durbin community and the Clear Springs community near Fountain Inn.

Belle outlived her husband by many years and died at age 83 in 1907. She was a charter member of the First Presbyterian Church in Fountain Inn (founded 1888), and is buried at nearby New Harmony Presbyterian Church not far from her parents. John Garrett is buried at the Confederate Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. A beautiful old monument stands in his memory in the Durbin Baptist Church Cemetery near Fountain Inn.


2 John Stewart

25 Isabella Katherine Stewart

251 William Perry Garrett

William Perry Garrett was the only son of John Garrett, his first child by his second wife, Isabella Katherine Stewart. He was born in 1861 in upper Laurens County near Fountain Inn, SC. His father was killed in the Civil War when he was three years old.

In 1888 Perry married Harriet Elizabeth Fowler, the daughter of Eliza Grey and Simpson Fowler of the Fairview community near Fountain Inn. The oldest records say that Perry and Harriett lived for a time on Cannon Street in Fountain Inn, not far from the old Fountain Inn Cemetery. In later years they settled in lower Greenville County two miles east of Mauldin, SC on East Butler Road (County Road 107 toward the Five Forks community). The house still stands on the farm where they lived. They had a family of five children, three of whom died as infants.

In her last years Perry's aunt, 29 Adeline Stewart, retired from teaching and lived with him and his young family. Adeline died in 1897, not long after the birth of little Annie Ruth, the fifth child. She is buried at New Harmony Presbyterian Church not far from her parents and other member other members of the family.

Perry and Hattie Garrett were longtime members of Fairview Presbyterian Church west of Fountain Inn, and both are buried there together with several of their children.

Their son William Creighton Garrett, who never married, served in France during WW1 with Company A, 12th Engineers of the Rainbow Division. He was gassed and wounded, but recovered and returned to the front lines, where he remained until the end of the war in 1918. After the war he was employed as a civil engineer with the Carolina Power Company. At the time of his death at age 30 he was surveying a power line across the Wateree River near Camden, SC and drowned when his boat capsized. He is buried at Fairview Presbyterian Church near other members of his family.


2 John Stewart

25 Isabella Katherine Stewart

252 Phoebe Malinda Garrett

Phoebe Malinda Garrett was the last and youngest child of John Garrett and his second wife, Isabella Katherine Stewart. She was born in 1864 near Fountain Inn, SC a few months before her father was killed in the Civil War.

In 1882 Phoebe married John Tolliver Willis (Tol), the son of Fannie Armstrong and Melmuth Willis of Laurens County. Phoebe and Tol Willis lived for many years at their home in the Green Pond section of Laurens County south of Fountain Inn, where they reared a family of six children. Tol was a prominent citizen and farmer of the Green Pond community. He and Phoebe were members of Green Pond Methodist Church, where they are buried.

Phoebe died in 1946 at age 82, and Tol in 1948 at age 91. He was the oldest living member of Green Pond Methodist Church when he died, having been a member for 60 years. He served as an officer and trustee of the church for many years. At the time of his death, he and Phoebe had 40 grandchildren, 26 great-grandchildren, and three great-great grandchildren.

The Willis clan holds an annual reunion at the Greenpond Methodist Church near Fountain Inn on the second Sunday in July each year.


2 John Stewart

26 Walter Henry Stewart

Walter Henry Stewart was the sixth child of John Stewart and Linny Pitts, founders of the House of John. Henry, as he was called, was born in 1826 in the Bethany community in lower Laurens County, SC. He was probably named after his two grandfathers, Walter Stewart, Sr. and Henry Pitts.

As a young man, Henry moved with his parents and the rest of his family to the Fountain Inn area, where his father John died shortly afterwards of a sudden stroke while rebuilding his sawmill on North Durbin Creek. Family tradition says that young Henry ran the sawmill after his father's death, and lived for a time in a little house near the sawmill site about two miles northeast of Fountain Inn. Henry's uncle, 6 Rev. Clark Berry Stewart, notes in his journal that he bought 221 feet of weatherboard for his barn from Henry Stewart in July 1870.

During the Civil War, Henry served in Company D of Hampton's Legion, which was a cavalry regiment assigned to General J.E.B. Stuart's Army of the Shenandoah. In 1864 he married Tempie Caroline Jones, thought to be the daughter of Margaret McMahon and Moses M. Jones of the Fountain Inn area. After the war Henry served as postmaster of Fountain Inn - probably sometime in the years between 1867 and 1873, according to available post office records for these years. He kept the post office in his home for a time. About 1874 he and Caroline and their young family moved to the Freeman community in upper Greenville County near Travelers Rest, SC, where Henry again served as postmaster. He was Clerk of Session at New Harmony Presbyterian Church until 1874.

Henry and Caroline reared a family of seven children, one of whom died as a child. They were charter members of the Third Presbyterian Church in Greenville, and are buried at Duncan's Chapel Cemetery on Old Buncombe Road north of Greenville.

Many descendants of Caroline Jones and Henry Stewart still live in the Travelers Rest and Greenville area. They meet each year on the fourth Sunday in October for a "Stewart Cousins Reunion" at Reedy River Baptist Church on County Road 88 southwest of Travelers Rest, on the edge of the Furman University Campus. For more information, contact 2641 Frances S. Shepard or 26272 Beulah L. Batson.


2 John Stewart

26 Walter Henry Stewart

261 Metta Eugenia Helen Stewart

Metta Eugenia Helen Stewart, the oldest child of Walter Henry Stewart and Caroline Jones, was born in 1866. As a young woman Metta married John James Dill, a son of Rev. John Dill of Paris Mountain Township in upper Greenville County. Gertrude Dill, their youngest child, provided this information not long before her death in 1981:

Metta Stewart was born in Fountain Inn, SC. Her father, Walter Henry Stewart, was postmaster there and later at Freeman, SC (Travelers Rest). Metta had helped with the mail since she was very young; in fact not grown-up enough to reach the desk on which the mail was dumped and sorted. It was necessary for her to stand on a chair to do this. When Walter Henry died, Metta had reached womanhood and had gained enough experience to take over the duties of postmaster. Prior to this appointment, she taught school for awhile.

John James Dill was a son of a Baptist minister and farmer in upper Greenville County. He worked in a men's clothing store in Greenville and taught school near the place of his birth. After his marriage to Metta Stewart, they moved further south in the Buncombe Road area. He was appointed Justice of the Peace in the Paris Mountain Township. At the time of his death the family lived on a farm on North Franklin Road. John James and Metta Stewart Dill are interred in New Liberty Baptist Church Cemetery, Poinsett Highway (formerly Buncombe Road).

Edith Dill was born in Greenville, SC, which has been her permanent residence. She taught school in Greer, SC and served as Social Service Worker at F.W. Poe Manufacturing Company for several years. She served three temporary appointments with the Commerce Department, Washington, DC.

Before her marriage, Metta Jane Dill was clerk and bookkeeper in several business offices in Greenville, SC. L.T. Batson, Sr., her husband, was proprietor of a Ladies' Specialty Shop in Greenville.

Gertrude Dill worked in several business offices in Greenville and Charleston, SC. She completed a retirement career in the Federal Government, Washington, DC. Her permanent address is Greenville, SC.


2 John Stewart

26 Walter Henry Stewart

262 Lurana Margaret Stewart

Lurana Margaret Stewart (Linnie) was the second child of Walter Henry Stewart and Tempie Caroline Jones. She was born in 1868 near Fountain Inn, SC and later lived in upper Greenville County in the Freeman community near Travelers Rest, SC where her father was postmaster.

In 1885 Linnie married James Barney Hawkins of upper Greenville County. Linnie and James lived all their lives on a 119-acre farm some 10 miles north of Greenville, SC which James inherited from his father. Furman University now stands on a portion of his father's estate.

Linnie and James Hawkins attended Reedy River Baptist Church near Travelers Rest, where they are buried. They had a family of twelve children, one of whom (an infant daughter born and died 1910) did not survive.


2 John Stewart

26 Walter Henry Stewart

263 Lyda Virginia Stewart

Lyda Virginia Stewart was the third child of Walter Henry Stewart and Tempie Caroline Jones. She was born in 1871 near Fountain Inn, SC. As a child she came to the Travelers Rest area in upper Greenville County, where her father was postmaster of the old Freeman community.

In 1895, Lyda married James Garrison Lipscomb, who was born in Walker County, Georgia but lived in Greenville County most of his life. He was the son of Emily Garrison and E. Bruce Lipscomb of Greenville and Gaffney, SC (Cherokee County).

James and Lyda Lipscomb settled in Paris Mountain Township in upper Greenville County (Route 5, Buncombe Road, Greenville, SC) where James farmed and was a construction worker. They reared a family of four daughters and three sons. They were faithful members for many years of Reedy River Baptist Church, where James was Sunday school superintendent and a deacon. They are buried at the church.

Lyda died in 1931 at age 59. In later years James married a second time to Maggie Garrison, and died in 1955 at age 82. He was a lifelong member of the Masons.


2 John Stewart

26 Walter Henry Stewart

264 Henry Edward Stewart

Henry Edward Stewart (Edward) was the fourth child of Walter Henry Stewart and Tempie Caroline Jones. He was born in 1874 in Laurens County near Fountain Inn, SC. As a child he came to the Travelers Rest section of upper Greenville County, where his father was postmaster of the old Freeman community.

In 1907 Edward married Grace Sanora Willis, daughter of Julia Frances Hollis and Gidion Thomas Willis of West Earle Street in Greenville. Edward and Grace Stewart lived at 617 Rutherford Street in Greenville, and reared a family of two children. Grace died in 1930 at age 49. She is buried at old Springwood Cemetery In Greenville, where her husband was later buried. After her death, he married a second time to Nannie Gibson.

Grace and Edward Stewart's daughter, Frances S. Shepard, says:

Henry Edward Stewart worked for over 35 years at the Greenville Post Office, holding positions of Assistant Postmaster and Civil Service Clerk. He was a long term (35 years) chairman of the Board of Stewards of Triune Methodist Church, Greenville. Grace Stewart was a graduate of Greenville Female Academy and taught school and did wide church work.


2 John Stewart

26 Walter Henry Stewart

267 Walter Claude Stewart

Walter Claude Stewart (Claude) was the seventh and last child of Tempie Caroline Jones and Walter Henry Stewart, postmaster of the old Freeman community near Travelers Rest, SC.

In 1913 Claude Stewart married Gertie Lee Fowler, a daughter of Catherine Elvira Maxwell and Walter Charles Fowler of the Standing Springs community near Simpsonville, SC (Greenville County). Gertie died in 1930, leaving Claude with six children, the oldest of whom was barely 16 years old. Two years later he married Gertie's sister Ruth Fowler, who in addition to rearing the children held a fulltime job for 36 years.

Ruth Fowler Stewart, 84 years old in 1981, lives at 100 Crescent Ridge, Greenville, SC 29615, where she presides over her large and interesting family. She provided this information:

Walter Claude Stewart, Sr. was born in the Old Buncombe Road section, near Travelers Rest, Greenville County, SC on July 31, 1885. He lived in this section until 1905 when he moved to 108 Buist Avenue, Greenville, SC, and went to work for the Greenville Post Office as rural carrier, where he worked for 44 years. After he retired he lived at 100 Crescent Ridge, Greenville until his death October 1, 1965.

In his boyhood and early manhood days he attended and was a member of Duncan's Chapel Methodist Church. When he moved to Greenville he joined Hampton Avenue Methodist Church (later named Triune) until he and J. Lee Poole were instrumental in the organization of Francis Asbury United Methodist Church. As always, he was an active member in any church to which he belonged. At the time of his death he and his pastor were out working for a church project when he was stricken and died seconds later. He is buried in Springwood Cemetery, Greenville, SC.

Gertie Lee Fowler Stewart was born on October 23, 1891 near Simpsonville, SC. She attended school in the Simpsonville area and was graduated from Mauldin High School. She taught school at Oak Grove School in the Walkersville community near Simpsonville until her marriage to Claude Stewart on June 4, 1913. She was a devoted mother of their six children until her death on May 27, 1930.

In childhood and youth, she was a member of Bethel Methodist Church, Simpsonville, SC. After her marriage she was active in the Woman's Missionary Society at Triune Methodist Church. She is buried in Springwood Cemetery.

I was born July 8, 1897 in the Standing Springs community, Simpsonville, SC. I stayed in the Simpsonville area until my parents' death and attended schools in that area. I graduated from Central High School (now Greenville High School) in 1915, and from Greenville Women's College (now Furman University) in 1919. I went to work as a clerk in the Greenville Post Office on July 8, 1918 and retired from that office on December 31, 1954.

As a child I joined Bethel Methodist Church. In 1915 I became a member of Hampton Avenue Methodist Church (later Triune Methodist Church). I am also a charter member of Francis Asbury United Methodist Church on East North Street in Greenville.

Parents of Gertie F. Stewart and Ruth F. Stewart: Walter Charles (Charlie) Fowler, son of Benjamin Riley Fowler and Ruth Austin Fowler. His father froze to death after his troop had to swim a river during the Civil War. Charlie Fowler lived in the Simpsonville area all his life. He died in 1914 and is buried in the Bethel Methodist Church Cemetery.

His wife, Catherine Elvira (Ella) Maxwell Fowler, was the daughter of Frank Maxwell and Margaret McCrarey who lived in the Five Forks community near Simpsonville. Charlie and Ella lived in the same area after marriage and became the parents of four sons and three daughters. Only one of these children (Ruth F. Stewart) is still living. Ella Fowler is also buried at Bethel Methodist Church.

The descendants of Walter Claude Stewart meet for the Stewart Cousins Reunion on the fourth Sunday in October at Reedy River Baptist Church near Greenville, SC. (See 26 Walter Henry Stewart.)


2 John Stewart

2.10. John Warren Stewart

John Warren Stewart was the tenth child of John Stewart and Linny Pitts, founders of the House of John. He was born in 1833 near the Bethany community in Laurens County, SC, and as a teenager moved with his family to the nearby community of Fountain Inn.

Young John Warren was 19 years old when his father died of a stroke in 1852 at his sawmill on Big Durbin Creek near Fountain Inn. His older brother, 26 Henry Stewart, appears to have taken over the management of the sawmill and property after their father's death. John Warren and his brothers Preston and Robert James (who later died in the Civil War) probably continued to live with the family and worked under Henry's direction for some time.

As always, John Warren's uncle, 6 Rev. Clark Berry Stewart of the Fairview community near Fountain Inn, tried to help his half-brother John's family when he could. In 1854, two years after John's death, his young son John Warren came to work for Clark. The following brief entries are found in Clark's journal:

January 9, 1854. John Warren Stewart came to work with me as a hireling for a year for which service (if satisfactory re-ordered) I am to pay him $100.00.

March 18, 1854. John at the request of Henry and his mother quit here as a hireling -

October 19, 1857. John Stewart and David Jones Started to Texas last Sunday -

The dates indicate that John "started to Texas" about four months after the death of his widowed mother, Linny Pitts Stewart. His movements over the next few years are not certain. The oldest records in the family say he fought in the Civil War, which began in 1861. He appears to be the John Warren Stewart found listed in the National Archives as a private in Company F of the 9th Alabama Infantry.

After the Civil War, John returned to the Fountain Inn area for a time, and then set out for Texas again. Like his Uncle Clark, he appears to have kept a journal for a time. A fragment describing his trip has been preserved by his great-grandson, 2.10.172 Curtis LaVell McKinney of Hollywood, Florida. According to this fragment, John began his trip by taking the "cars" (train) to Columbia, South Carolina:

Left home for Texas. Taking the cars at Morrow's Turnout for Columbia, SC. After a pleasant ride of several hours arrived at Columbia in time for S.C.R.R. [South Carolina Railroad.] I have made several pleasant acquaintences, Shorter, Mitchel of whom I am well pleased and who I shall speak hereafter. Took supper at Branchville. Shorter treats to Champaigne and Havanas. Arrived at Augusta, Ga. at 12 midnight. Changed cars for Atlanta. Shorter and myself have a meeting.. Eat breakfast at Decatur. Arrive at Atlanta, Ga. Change cars for W.P. Ga. [West Point, Georgia.] The country so far seems [word not clear] and steril. Arrive at W.P. 5 P.M. Changed cars for Montgomery, Ala. Arrived Montgomery, 11 P.M. Changed cars for Mobile. Had the honor of riding with General Longstreet to Mobile. The old warhorse is getting [word not clear] though his eye has the mild and soft look as when he bravely and patriotically led the brave old First Corpes of the Invincible A.N.V. [Army of Northern Virginia.] Arrived at Mobile 8 P.M. Left Mo. for New Orleans by the splendid Steamer Louise after a pleasant night's ride.
(November 27, 1866)

Again, John's destination in Texas is not certain. Some hints are offered by the movement of his future in-laws, the Boyds. The Pedens of America is the history of the Peden family who were the original settlers of the Fairview community near Fountain Inn. Here it is recorded that Mary McDill Peden (1823-1868) married a David Boyd (1817-1890). The two settled in the Fairview community and had a family of seven daughters and two sons. Rev. Clark Stewart officiated at the marriage of at least one of the daughters in the hard years after the Civil War. The following entries are found in his journal:

July 31, 1866. Loned David Boyd Twelve Dollars in Gold to assist in adorning his daughter as a bride for a husband.

August 16, 1866. Attended a marriage at David Boyds - John Boyd and Miss E Boyd were married - Compensation for services, $4.50 Greenbacks

November 6, 1867. Some days since I rec. of Geo. Terry, a Cow which was the property of David Boyd (Texas)

David Boyd and eight of his nine children settled in various parts of Texas in the years after the Civil War. John Warren Stewart was evidently in contact with this family. On November 24, 1867 he married Sarah Simpson Boyd (Sally), the fourth child of Mary McDill Peden and David Boyd.

In 1869, when their first child was born, John and Sally were living near the town of Gonzales (Gonzales County) in south Texas, about 80 miles east of San Antonio. Sometime over the next few years they moved about 200 miles north to Johnson County, north central Texas about 30 miles south of Ft. Worth. Here their fourth and last child, John Simpson Curtis Stewart, was born in 1877 in the Sand Flat community, probably near Cleburne, Texas. Sally Boyd Stewart, the mother, died two months later.

After Sally's death, John appears to have turned for help to his wife's relatives, several of whom were living in the area. Later descendants say that the two youngest children, David Edgar ("Dee") and his infant brother Curtis, were reared by Sally's youngest sister, Nancy Boyd, and her husband Charlie Ingle, who had no children of their own. They lived in the nearby Auburn community in Ellis County near the town of Grandview, Texas. John appears to have stayed on his farm in Johnson County, possibly keeping his two older children with him at least part of the time. He was killed by a team of runaway horses on his farm in 1891, at age 57. His four children - two daughters and two sons - later settled in widely scattered parts of Texas and Oklahoma.


2 John Stewart

2.10 John Warren Stewart

2.10.1 Ada Lillian Stewart

Ada Lillian Stewart was the oldest child of John Warren Stewart and Sally Boyd. She was born in 1869 in south central Texas (Gonzales County) and grew up near Cleburne in Johnson County south of Ft. Worth. As a young woman, she married Michael Bernard McKinney. Their grandson, 2.10.172 Curtis LaVell McKinney, reports:

Michael Bernard McKinney's father was born in New York. He came to Texas before 1857. He was married to a woman from South Carolina (name not known). He was a Civil War veteran who was returned home due to wounds from which he died in August 1864.

Michael was born in Palestine, Texas (Anderson County) two months before his father died. As far as is known, his mother did not remarry. The family later moved to Cleburne, Texas (Johnson County) where Michael met and married Ada Stewart.

Michael worked for the railroad for a number of years in Johnson County before leaving by wagon train to the Panhandle of Texas in 1902. They traveled as far as Alvord in Wise County, and their daughter Leta Nora broke a leg. They stayed there for a year. They left in 1903, and their seventh child, Harley Curtis Stewart, was born in a wagon on the trip, on September 10, 1903.

They traveled to old Mobeetie (Wheeler County) and probably stayed there a year or two, then moved to Wellington, Texas (Collingsworth County), where Michael worked as a bricklayer and builder. There are still several prominent buildings in the business part of Wellington that Michael built. About 1907 he moved his family to Willow in southwest Oklahoma (Greer County) where he and Ada lived and farmed until their death.

Michael and Ada were members of the Church of Christ and are buried at the Church of Christ, Willow, Oklahoma. Michael was a member of the Christian Brotherhood in Mangrum, Oklahoma (Greer County) and also of the Independent Order of Oddfellows.


2 John Stewart

2.10. John Warren Stewart

2.10.2 Virginia May Stewart

Virginia May Stewart was the second child of John Warren Stewart and his wife Sally Boyd. She was born in 1871, about four years after her father left South Carolina for Texas. He and his young family later settled on a farm near Cleburne (Johnson County) south of Ft. Worth, Texas, where his wife Sally died when little Virginia was a child of six.

Like her two younger brothers, Virginia may have lived for a time after her mother's death with her aunt and uncle, Nannie and Charlie Ingle of the Auburn community in Ellis County near Grandview, Texas. Nannie Ingle (Nancy Alethia Boyd) was the childless younger sister of Virginia's mother, Sally Boyd Stewart.

Virginia married T.F. "Bud" Singletary, place of birth unknown, the son of B.B. Singletary. Virginia and Bud's first child, a little daughter whom they called Pearl, was born in 1889 in the Auburn community when Virginia was 18 years old. Two more children, Ira Boyd Singletary and Jessie Singletary, were born later.

When Virginia was 21 years old, she wrote a letter to her only sister, Ada Stewart McKinney, who at the time was living in Cuba, Texas (Johnson County). The letter still survives, the original owned by Ada McKinney's grandson, 2.10.172 Curtis LaVell McKinney. It was written in 1892 by Virginia from a community called Sipe Springs, probably located in Comanche County in central Texas, about 80 miles from Johnson County where Ada lived.

Sipe Spring

March 25, 1892

Dear Bud and Sis

I will write you this morn after so long a time. please excuse my long delay and I will do better next time. we are all well at present and hope you all are as well blessed.
no news of interest to write we have had some of the worst weather I ever saw in march - it rained all day the 14th and came a hard sleet and freeze the 15th and never thaud till the 18th and then it rained till the 21. all my garden that was up went down in a hurry, my tomatoes were awful pretty but all got killed. Buddie bought me a paper of the red tomato seed and I had some of the yellow ones that I did not plant so I will have to plant over. how is your garden and how many little chickens have you got. I have 36 little chickens and one hen sitting. I know that you can beat that for you have so many hens and I have only 11. chickens are scarce in this country one of Buddies Cousins gave me 12 hens and a ruster and I got chicken hungry and eat one of my hens. Buddie has 20 acres planted in corn before the freeze and he is afraid he will have to plant over. he said that would make a man sick that loved to farm much less him.
how many quilts have you quilted this winter I have quilted 2 and the one I had up at your house and have 2 ready to quilt. I am going to help Mrs Byrd this eavning if nothing hapens

(The rest of the letter is lost.)

We have no further record of Virginia. She died a few years later, probably around 1897, when her oldest child, Pearl, was about nine years old. Like her mother Sally Boyd Stewart, Virginia died before her 30th birthday.

After Virginia's death her husband Bud, like her father in earlier years, turned for help to Nannie Boyd and Charlie Ingle of the Auburn community in Ellis County. Virginia's granddaughter, 2.10.211 Nanette McGowen Padgett of Panhandle, Texas (Carson County) relates this story:

Aunt Nannie, who lived with my family after Uncle Charlie's death, told me of how Mother's father, whom she referred to as "Bud" Singletary, asked her to take my mother Pearl, since he had two younger children. The Ingles did not have children of their own and had kept many children for members of their families from periods of a few weeks to several years. It had been difficult to become attached to the children they kept, then give them back to their families when whatever crisis that prompted their temporary parenthood was over. So when "Bud" asked Aunt Nannie to keep Pearl for him, since his own mother would help him care for the two younger children, she replied that she would love to have the little girl, but only if she could rear her as her own daughter on a permanent basis. He agreed to this, and Mother was lovingly reared by the Ingles, though never formally adopted by them.

For fear of losing her, they did not encourage communication with her father or brother and sister. This is the reason that I know so little about Mother's family. Now all of the people who could have answered the questions needed to fill in the many gaps in family history are no longer living. I hope others in the Stewart family can add to our very incomplete knowledge.

After leaving his oldest daughter Pearl in the Ingles' care, Bud Singletary moved to Snyder, Texas (Scurry County), some 200 miles west of Ellis County and the Ingles. He lived there for 42 years, died at age 87, and is buried there. We have no further record of his other two children, Ira Boyd Singletary and Jessie Singletary.


2 John Stewart

2.10. John Warren Stewart

2.10.3 David Edgar Stewart

David Edgar Stewart (Dee) was the third child of John Warren Stewart and his wife Sally Boyd. He was born in 1874 in either Gonzales County or Johnson County, Texas. He was three years old when his mother died while the family was living on a farm in Johnson County near Cleburne.

After his mother's death, Dee Stewart lived for a time with his aunt and uncle, Nannie Boyd and Charlie Ingle, who lived in Johnson County near the town of Grandview. In 1894, Dee married 18-year-old Mary Chumney.

Not much is known about Dee and Mary and their descendants. In later years they lived in northeast Oklahoma in the town of Claremore (Rogers County, where Will Rogers was born). Dee had a shoe shop in Claremore. At the time of the first Stewart Reunion in South Carolina in 1907, Dee and Mary had a family of five daughters. At least one other child was born later, a son named Charles who at last report was living somewhere in North or South Carolina. Other descendants of the family are thought to be living in Oklahoma, but the records on them have not been updated since the early 1900s.


2 John Stewart

2.10. John Warren Stewart

2.10.4 John Simpson Curtis Stewart

John Simpson' Curtis Stewart (Curt) was the fourth and youngest child of Sally Boyd and John Warren Stewart. He was born in 1877 in the Sandflat community in Johnson County, Texas. His mother died two months after he was born.

According to Curt Stewart's daughter, Pauline Stewart White, he was cared for as an infant by a Negro "mammy." Curt was reared in the home of his mother's youngest sister, Nannie Boyd, and her husband Charlie Ingle, of the Auburn community (Ellis County) near Grandview, Texas. He was 14 years old when his father, John Warren Stewart, was killed by a runaway team of horses on his farm, which was probably in the Sandflat community. Young Curt's father apparently told him about his earlier life back in South Carolina - John Warren Stewart "worked Negroes on a plantation in South Carolina before moving to Texas," says Curt's daughter Nannie S. White. This may refer to John Warren's employment in 1854 by his uncle, 6 Rev. Clark Berry Stewart, who had extensive holdings in the Fairview community near Fountain Inn, SC and also owned several slaves (see 2.10. John Warren Stewart).

As a young man Curt married Nettie Felishia Purcell, who was also born in Texas (exact location uncertain). Nettie was the daughter of John Purcell and his wife "Crickett," whose full name was Mary Susan James Jordan Thomas. After their marriage, Nettie and Curt settled on a farm in the Perico community near Dalhart, Texas (Dallum County) in the Texas Panhandle. Here they reared a family of two sons and two daughters.

Curt's wife Nettie died in 1922 at age 36, when their youngest child, Ruby, was five years old. Curt never remarried. In later years after retiring he moved to nearby Dalhart, where he lived at 520 West 5th Street. He died in 1961 at age 83. Curt and Nettie Stewart are buried at a Methodist cemetery in Texline, Texas (Dallam County).


2 John Stewart

2.11. Clark Preston Stewart

Clark Preston Stewart was the eleventh and last child of John Stewart and Linny Pitts, founders of the House of John. Preston, as he was called, was born in 1836 near the Bethany community in lower Laurens County, SC, and moved to nearby Fountain Inn with his family as a boy. He was 16 years old when his father died of a sudden stroke at his sawmill on Big Durbin Creek about two miles north of Fountain Inn.

Like his older brothers Henry and John Warren Stewart, Preston appears to have lived with his widowed mother for several years and worked at the sawmill operated by the family.

In 1860, young Preston married 19-year-old Samantha M. Edwards, daughter of Rebecca Gilbert (b. 1808, 2nd wife) and John Edwards (b. 1788) of Laurens County. Preston and his bride Samantha may have settled in Georgia for a time. The oldest Stewart Family records, compiled about 1907, state that Preston was a Civil War veteran. He appears to be the Clark Preston Stewart listed in the National Archives who enlisted in Cass (later Bartow) County, Georgia on July 4, 1862 and served as a corporal in Pruden's Battery (Georgia Artillery), a unit of the 9th Battalion.

After the war Preston and his wife Samantha returned to the Fountain Inn area with their little son John Robert, born in 1861. On September 11, 1864 Samantha was received into the membership of New Harmony Presbyterian Church near Fountain Inn, which Preston had joined as a boy. Both Samantha and little John, age three, were baptized on the day she joined the church. Brief references in the journal of Preston's uncle, 6 Rev. Clark Berry Stewart, indicate that they farmed for a time. Tradition says they lived almost on the site of the present Fountain Inn Convalescent Home (501 Gulliver Street), which would have been near the traditional home of Preston's parents after their move from the old Bethany community in lower Laurens County. A little daughter, Ella, was born to Preston and Samantha on March 22, 1869. Less than a month later Samantha died, at age 28. She is buried at Durbin Baptist Church near Fountain Inn. (In those convivial times it was not unusual for individuals to hold membership in one church and be buried at another.)

Preston and his two young children lived in the Fountain Inn area for several years after Samantha's death. In 1876 he married Emma Eliza Nelson, said to be a descendant of an old family of Nelsons who settled in the Fountain Inn area after the Revolutionary War. (Her father is thought to be Samuel Nelson, wife's name unknown, son of Nancy Steadman and William Nelson of Fountain Inn.)

Preston and his second wife Emma Nelson had two more children of their own: Ada Olive and Samuel Homer Stewart. Sometime after the birth of little Homer in 1879 they moved to Russellville in northwest Alabama (Franklin County). In later years they were joined by Preston's older sister, 23 Edna Hunter Stewart, who died at age 78 in 1897. Preston also died in 1897, at age 60, and is thought to be buried in the Russellville area with his second wife Emma, who died in 1909. Their descendants were still found living in the vicinity of Russellville for many years thereafter, but recent attempts to contact them have not been successful.

Another of Preston's sisters, 29 Sarah Adeline Stewart, was a school teacher for many years in the Fountain Inn area. In 1889 Sarah used her long spring and summer break to visit her brother Preston and his family in Alabama. On this trip she kept a short diary that has been preserved in the household of her grand-niece, 2514 Annie Ruth Garrett Parker of Greenville, SC. Unfortunately, Sarah's little diary tells more about railroads than it does about Preston and his family, but it provides most of the information we have about him after he left South Carolina.

March 7th, 1889. I left home early in the morning for Ala. Came to Fountain Inn, took the train for Greenville S.C. Dined at Greenville Went to Depot, train more than two hours behind time, boarded the R & D. [Richmond and Danville] R.R. at 7 oclock in the evening, lunched at Central S.C. Steamed into Atlanta, Ga. about midnight two hours late I think they said .... Steamed into Chattanooga Tenn. about 8 oclock a.m. I suppose. Breakfasted there boarded the Memphis & Charleston R.R. left there about ten oclock a.m. Steamed into Tuscumbia Ala. late P.M. behind time like all the other trains, at Tuscumbia my trunk was not to be found so I had to wait till morning to look after it. I then took the Florence train for Sheffield, had to lie over till two oclock p.m. then took the train for Russelville Ala. got there at three oclock P.M. Saturday the third day after leaving home. did not find Preston there, had been there Friday and Saturday both for me. had to lie over till Sunday morning and pay two dollars to ride 8-1/2 miles out to Preston's over a rough road. That is the end of my journey. P.S. I saw some very pretty natural scenery along the Tenn. river & Lookout mountain & other places.

August 1st 1889. I left Preston's in Ala. for home, accompanied by Emma, Ada & Homer to Russellville dined at Andrew Nelson's. Took the Memphis, Sheffield and Birmingham R.R. at 2 1/2 oclock at Russellville...to Birmingham...got a ticket to Greenville S.C. $10.10 via Atlanta Ga. Then took the Georgia Pacific R.R. and ran into Atlanta, Ga. 175 miles, next morning between 6 and 7 oclock I suppose...There I took the Richmond and Danville R.R. to Greenville S.C. 160 miles got there between 1 and 2 oclock afternoon There I took the 3 oclock train to Fountain Inn S.C. 18 miles, 65 cts. Then took the dirt road out home got there friday evening Aug. 2nd in time to escape a pretty hard rain, and that is the end of my journey after a two days and one nights travel. I was smartly worried, but glad to be at home once more.


2 John Stewart

2.11. Clark Preston Stewart

2.11.2 Ella Samantha Stewart

Ella Samantha Stewart was the second child of Clark Preston Stewart and his first wife, Samantha Edwards. She was born in 1869 near Fountain Inn, SC, probably in lower Greenville County near the present city limits of the town.

Little Ella's mother, Samantha, died less than a month after she was born, leaving her and her older brother, eight-year-old John Robert, in the care of their widowed father. Who took care of the two children after this is a matter of conjecture, but Preston's unmarried sister 23 Edna Stewart, age 50, is a likely possibility. She lived in the Fountain Inn area for many years, place not certain, and in her last years joined Preston and his family in Alabama.

In 1876, when little Ella was about seven years old, her father married a second time to Emma Eliza Nelson. After 1879 there are no more references to her family in 6 Rev. Clark Berry's journal; presumably sometime after this date they moved to Russellville, Alabama, where Ella's aunt, 29 Sarah Adeline Stewart, visited them in 1889.

In 1886, at age 17, Ella married 23-year-old Obediah Dempsey, presumably of the Russellville area. The records show that Obediah died in 1889, leaving Ella with infant sons Clarence and Freddie Dempsey, the latter born after his father's death. Sometime thereafter Ella married a second time to Robert Scruggs.

According to the original records compiled by 62 Wistar Stewart, Ella and her second husband Robert Scruggs had three children, but the dates of birth for the children indicate that one or more may have been Robert Scruggs' child or children by a previous wife. We have had no further record of the family for many years.


2 John Stewart

2.11. Clark Preston Stewart

2.11.3 Ada Olive Stewart

Ada Olive Stewart was the third child of Clark Preston Stewart, by his second wife, Emma Eliza Nelson. She was born in 1876 near Fountain Inn, SC a few years before her parents moved to Russellville, Alabama (Franklin County).

In 1896 Ada married William Edmond Hargett, presumably of the Russellville area. They reared a family of seven children and lived on North Jackson Street in Russellville. Attempts to locate members of the family in recent years have not been successful, but descendants are thought to be still living in the area.


2 John Stewart

2.11. Clark Preston Stewart

2.11.4 Samuel Homer Stewart

Samuel Homer Stewart was the fourth child of Clark Preston Stewart, by his second wife, Emma Eliza Nelson. He was born in 1879 near Fountain Inn, SC, not long before his parents moved to Russellville, Alabama. His father's 61-year-old cousin, 6 Rev. Clark Berry Stewart, mentions the family for the last time a few month after little Samuel's birth. He visited them on one of his routine rounds of calling on relatives and members of Fairview and New Harmony Presbyterian Churches - who were often both relatives and members:

June 16, 1879. visit.d John Whites'. Mrs. M. Hitches Rob.t Brysons and M.T. Fowlers Called at Preston Stewarts Henry Stewart Cannons Store Mrs. McDowels Mrs. Pedens

In 1900 Samuel married Altee Annie Duncan, presumably of the Russellville area in Alabama. The old records show that they had a family of two daughters and three sons, but efforts to locate later descendants have not been successful.